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Ableton Live Workflow Tips Part 10 – Drawing Envelopes

There are two kind of envelopes in Live, clip envelopes and automation envelopes. These can be added via MIDI controllers or drawing. Or a combination of both.

To draw envelopes, you need to turn on the Draw Mode by either clicking on the pen icon in the Control Bar or by pressing Ctrl + B (Win) or Cmd + B (Mac) (up to Live 8), or B (Live 9 and up). Now you can simply draw the envelope curves. Steps are created according to the grid settings.

You can use the commands I described in part 1 of the Workflow Tips series to widen or narrow the grid. For freehand drawing you can turn off the grid with Ctrl + 4 (Win) or Cmd + 4 (Mac). If you want to still see the grid, but enable freehand drawing, simply hold down Alt while drawing.

I personally love using this feature to automate track panning. What do you (want to) use it for?

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Madeleine Bloom is an Ableton Certified Trainer, musician, producer, multi-instrumentalist and singer from Berlin. She studied Electroacoustic Music at the Franz Liszt Conservatory. For a few years she worked as a technical support for Ableton gaining in-depth knowledge of Ableton Live that even most CTs don't ever get. In 2012 she started Sonic Bloom and has since helped countless people on all continents with their music productions and live performances.